Institut für Molekulare Evolution
Willkommen am Institut für Molekulare Evolution an der Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf. Unsere Forschungsinteressen sind Endosymbiose, frühe Evolution, Ursprung des Lebens, Zellevolution, Genomevolution und kompartimentierter Energiestoffwechsel mit Schwerpunkt auf Chloroplasten, Mitochondrien und Hydrogenosomen.
Aktuelles
The Nordrhein-Westfälische Akademie der Wissenschaften und Künste published an interview with William Martin about his third ERC Advanced Grant and his research about early evolution and the origin of life.
22.04.2021 Award | William F. Martin
The European Union will support Prof. Dr. William F. Martin with around 2.5 million euros in the next five years. He was awarded the highly prestigious Advanced Grant in 2020 of the European Research Council (ERC). These Advanced Grants are awarded in a very strict selection process only to established, successful top researchers and are therefore considered a special scientific award. The special award to receive an ERC Advanced Grant, is also documented by the success rate: They fell at the current bid by approximately 8%.
22.04.2021 Publication | Nature
Life in a carbon dioxide world
Nature (2021)
doi: 10.1038/d41586-021-00977-1
26.03.2021 Publication | Communications Biology
The metabolic network of the last bacterial common ancestor
Communications Biology 4:413 (2021)
doi: 10.1038/s42003-021-01918-4
See news reports here
24.03.2021 | In memoriam Tom Cavalier-Smith
Tom was a savant. The human brain typically filters information on comparative morphology, Tom's did not. He rearranged his trees of cells, in his head, at will, for two reasons. First because he was able to do so, something no one else could. Second because there was always the problem that the characters might all be equally important. Weighting one character over the other changed the tree, often at its base, and he was able to then draw the resulting tree and its alternatives in a few minutes, from full throttle short and long term memory at once, sometimes reinterpreting characters in full stride. Those are intellectual feats unimaginable for the rest of us. He diligently put his knowledge in the written record, a great service to us all, for which science will be eternally grateful. Today we talk about Darwin or Haeckel. No one ever heard Tom say I can't remember. The rest of us put together, on the other hand, cannot forget. He was the closest thing to a super-hero that biology has to offer. In 200 years, the only contemporary blologist that science will discuss is Tom Cavalier-Smith. It was an honor to have interacted with him on too few occasions and to have been a biologist during his time.
19.03.2021 Publication | Genome Biology and Evolution
Gene duplications trace mitochondria to the onset of eukaryote complexity
Genome Biology and Evolution (2021)
doi: 10.1093/gbe/evab055
23.02.2021 Publication | Microorganisms
The autotrophic core: An ancient network of 404 reactions converts H2, CO2, and NH3 into amino acids, bases, and cofactors
Microorganisms 9:458 (2021)
doi: 10.3390/microorganisms9020458
21.12.2020 Publication | Biosystems
The origin of symbiogenesis: An annotated English translation of Mereschkowky's 1910 paper on the theory of two plasma lineages
Biosystems 199:104281 (2021)
doi: 10.1016/j.biosystems.2020.104281
09.12.2020 Press | Nature
Martina Preiner's research was quoted in Nature:
The water paradox and the origins of life
07.12.2020 Publication | de Gruyter
30.11.2020 We moved!
You can now find us in
Building 26.24
Floor 03
18.11.2020 Publication | Genome Biology and Evolution
Anomalous phylogenetic behavior of ribosomal proteins in metagenome assembled asgard archaea
Genome Biol Evol (2020)
doi: 10.1093/gbe/evaa238
02.11.2020 Publication | PLoS Genetics
A spectrum of verticality across genes
PLoS Genet 16:e1009200 (2020)
doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1009200
17.09.2020 Graduation | Maria Handrich
Maria Handrich successfully finished her doctorate with the thesis entitled
"Vergleichende Analyse von Lichtschutzmechanismen in 6 verschiedenen Repräsentanten der Archaeplastida".
13.07.2020 Publication | Nature Ecology and Evolution
Phylogenetic analyses with systematic taxon sampling show that mitochondria branch within Alphaproteobacteria
Nat Ecol Evol (2020)
doi: 10.1038/s41559-020-1239-x
Behind the paper: A call for super caution in phylogenetic studies on the origin of mitochondria
14.07.2020 Assistant Professor | Shijulal Nelson-Sathi
Congratulations to Shijulal Nelson-Sathi, a former PhD Student and Postdoc from our institute, who has been selected as Scientist C (equivalent to Assistant Professor) at the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology (RGCB) in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India.
04.06.2020 Publication | Frontiers in Microbiology
Older than genes: The acetyl CoA pathway and origins
Front Microbiol 11:817 (2020)
doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2020.00817
28.05.2020 Graduation | Madeline Weiß
Madeline Weiß successfully finished her doctorate with the thesis entitled
"Phylogenetische Analyse prokaryotischer Genome zur Rekonstruktion des letzten gemeinsamen Vorfahrens der Prokaryoten".
Autocatalytic chemical networks at the origin of metabolism
Proc R Soc B 287:20192377 (2020)
doi: 10.1098/rspb.2019.2377
06.03.2020 Publication | Genome Biology and Evolution
Bacterial genes outnumber archaeal genes in eukaryotic genomes
Genome Biol Evol (2020)
doi: 10.1093/gbe/evaa047
02.03.2020 Press | Science
Science published an article about William Martin's latest paper in Nature Ecology and Evolution:
Was this life’s first meal?
02.03.2020 Publication | Nature Ecology and Evolution
A hydrogen-dependent geochemical analogue of primordial carbon and energy metabolism
Nat Ecol Evol (2020)
doi: 10.1038/s41559-020-1125-6
17.02.2020 Publication | FEMS Microbiology Reviews
Physiological limits to life in anoxic subseafloor sediment
FEMS Microbiol Rev (2020)
doi: 10.1093/femsre/fuaa004
28.01.2020 Graduation | Martina Preiner
Martina Preiner successfully finished her doctorate with the thesis entitled
"The abiotic pattern of biotic CO2 fixation in early metabolism".
